What else?!?

[Will the Thrill]

Good Afternoon.
I'm in the Dep and I was just wondering what more I need to do to prepare myself as much as possible for bootcamp. I leave June 1st, which is less than a month away. Im going to San Diego. Right now my PFT is 21 pull ups, 105 crunches in 2 minutes, and a 3 mile in 21 minutes. I know all General Orders by heart. I workout 5 days a week and run 6 days a week. I'm doing all I can think of doing to prepare, but I thought I would ask those who have actually gone through what I'm about to go through. Any advice will help.

Thanks Marines.

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

Calm down and spend time with your family and friends. You are prepared as well as, or better than, you need to be. You can't get ready for the mental part of boot camp and you have the physical side down. So just keep working out to maintain what you have and enjoy your last weeks as a nasty wannabe.

[Will the Thrill]

Thank you Echo_Four_Bravo. But, also, my MOS is 0300. Is there anything I should do in particular to prepare for ITB at Camp Pendelton? The only thing I've been able to think up is going for long walks with a weighted pack. Thanks again and any advice for ITB will help a lot. Because from what I've heard, ITB is boot camp "phase 4." Is this true?

[semperfi170]

You are worrying too much. Concentrate/focus on the immediate, like spedning time with friends and family. You seem to be well conditioned physically, let the Boot Camp training prepare you for what comes after.

[Crusader20]

ITB is tough. Don't get me wrong. Looking back, it was a whole can of Whoop Ass!
But Boot will get you mentally prepared for whatever they throw at you at ITB. Lots and Lots of field time and weapons time. Lots and lots of walking with a heavy pack, up some pretty steap hills and mountains. (some how you never go down one, just up. Go figure.)
You need to relax for now and don't get all worked up. Make it through next week and the week after. ITB will be there soon enough.

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

You are getting way ahead of yourself. You cannot get ready for SOI before you go to boot camp. Even if you could, you would lose those gains in the three months between the two.

SOI is set up so that Marines that have been basically trained in boot camp can complete it. They aren't going to give you a problem you cannot work through given the tools you learn at boot camp. And when you finish SOI you're going to be a boot in the fleet and get to learn everything over again and continue training.

[Will the Thrill]

Thanks for the help Marines! I appreciate it. I really want to get my run time down below 18:00 because I was really hoping for a 300pft score. I'm assuming that my time will improve because the DI's will be there doing what they do best and I'm sure they're gonna push out of me everything I have. I just want to get as close as possible before I ship out. Any advice? I can handle well over 3 miles running, its just the speed part that gets me.. Thanks!

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

You don't have much time for speed work. Try running 400 meter repeats. Go 400 meters full out, rest 90 seconds, do it again. Do that 4-6 times. It is a workout I used to do every couple weeks and it helped. But you're short on time to do much.

[rvillac2]

Just remember to leave it all on the course. If you're getting to finish line and not ready to puke, you still had some gas left in the tank.

[Quinbo]

Of all the conditioning training I ever did the one thing that seemed to work the best on improving my run time was time in the swimming pool. Challenge yourself to stay in the water for one hour. Even if you are not the best at swimming you can tread water, swim laps, dive for coins whatever.